Tips: Why every toolbox should include nailpolish

A perfect manicure and a weekend renovating your kitchen may not seem like a match made in heaven.

But, stick with me, cause nail polish can be super helpful for projects around the house. 

For starters, putting a drop or two of clear nail polish into a hole before you finish tightening the screw will help prevent screws from coming loose. 

You can also use a thin coat to keep nuts and bolts from loosening - and, if you need to remove it later, a little twist with a wrench (or pry with a screwdriver) will break the seal.

It can even help you keep track of tiny screws: a little dab and a second to dry will keep them stuck to the end of your screwdriver until they've safely reached their destination.

And, don't you just hate those rusty rings cans leave on your sink and shelves? Nail polish can banish those too - a clear coat over the bottom of the can will protect it from water, and keep it from rusting. (Check out more uses for nail polish on eHow).

Read more tips from "Make life easier" March (and please share your own tips in the comments, too!)

- Speed wallpaper removal

- Remove stickers and price tags

- Keep your bathroom mirror from fogging up

- Cut down on painting cleanup

- Banish tea (or coffee) stained mugs

- Quiet that dripping faucet

- Make sure your furniture fits before you buy

- Don't let your paint can drip on the floor

(SHUTTERSTOCK PHOTO)

Tip: Don't let your paint can drip on your floor

This is one of those tips that make you wonder, 'Why didn't I think of that before?'

No matter how carefully I lay drop clothes and prep my painting area, I always manage to get a few droplets on the floor from the brush or can.

(Bonus tip: If you're using latex paint, those drops can be carefully removed with a razor blade, and no one will ever be the wiser.)

A paper plate is the secret to stopping the mess.

Grab a plate that's a little bigger than your can (at least an inch larger), add a dab of glue in the centre, and plunk your paint can down on top of it. No more drips! Plus, thanks to the glue, it will stay put when you're pouring or moving the can.

Read more tips from "Make life easier" March (and please share your own tips in the comments, too!)

- Speed wallpaper removal

- Remove stickers and price tags

- Keep your bathroom mirror from fogging up

- Cut down on painting cleanup

- Banish tea (or coffee) stained mugs

- Quiet that dripping faucet

- Make sure your furniture fits before you buy

(SHUTTERSTOCK PHOTO)

Tip: Make sure the furniture fits before you buy

There's nothing worse than bringing home that stylish new must-have piece or sweet Craigslist score only to find it's way out of scale for your room.

It doesn't matter how pretty that table is, if you have to squeeze sideways to pass through your dining room, it's not working for your space.

To avoid that "my sofa ate my living room" look, I always turn to this tip from designer friends: measure and plot it out too.

A measuring tape will help you figure out that, yes, in fact it will fit through the door, but mapping it out on the floor with painter's tape (which can be easily removed without doing any harm to your carpet or hardwood) will help you actually see how it looks in the room, and how much floor space you'll lose to the footprint.

This is also a great trick when you're rearranging furniture, so you can test out your new room's configurations and flow before giving your muscles a workout moving that table 11 times. 

Read more tips from "Make life easier" March (and please share your own tips in the comments, too!)

- Speed wallpaper removal

- Remove stickers and price tags

- Keep your bathroom mirror from fogging up

- Cut down on painting cleanup

- Banish tea (or coffee) stained mugs

- Quiet that dripping faucet

(SHUTTERSTOCK PHOTO)

Tip: Banish those tea (or coffee) stained mugs

My love of tea is no secret (more than one person has asked me if my tweets are sponsored by Tetley!). So, it should be no surprise that tea-stained mugs are a common challenge at Casa Speedy.

Luckily, my mom taught me this simple, but surprisingly effective trick: A pinch of baking soda scrubbed over the stains erases them in seconds - even on white mugs where the tea has had a day or two to set!

For particularly stubborn stains (which I've come to expect from my all-white serving and casserole dishes), making up a paste with baking soda and a little bit of water and leaving it to sit for a few minutes seems to help lift the stains away with minimal elbow grease.

Read more tips from "Make life easier" March (and please share your own tips in the comments, too!)

- Speed wallpaper removal

- Remove stickers and price tags

- Keep your bathroom mirror from fogging up

- Cut down on painting cleanup

(SHUTTERSTOCK PHOTO)

Tip: Cut down on painting cleanup

The only thing worse than the actual painting process is having to clean up your brushes and rollers after a long day's work, knowing full well that you'll be doing it all over again the following day (or next weekend) after your second coat.

Now, at least I can limit my cleanups to just once per paint job. I learned this tip from my in-laws, who in turn learned it from their contractor.

Instead of cleaning up between coats, wrap your brushes and rollers tightly with cling wrap. As double insurance against drying out (especially if you're like me, and sometimes have a week between coats), pop your carefully wrapped tools in the fridge.

When your next painting day arrives, just pull out your rollers and brushes, while keeping the cling wrap on, and let them heat back up to room temperature before dipping in.

Voila - clean up time cut in half! Though, your guests may wonder why you've got a stack of rollers hanging out next to your milk and eggs.

Read more tips from "Make life easier" March (and please share your own tips in the comments, too!)

- Speed wallpaper removal

- Remove stickers and price tags

- Keep your bathroom mirror from fogging up

(SHUTTERSTOCK PHOTO)

Tip: Keep your bathroom mirror from fogging up

I don't know about you, but my morning routine has been crammed into the shortest amount of time possible. Which means there's no time to spare between showering and eye-makeup application to wait for my bathroom mirror to clear.

Luckily, I happened to find this easy and cheap tip -- seen recently again on Apartment Therapy -- to keep my mirror clear (and my eye-makeup evenly applied)!

Clean your mirror in the normal fashion, and dry thoroughly. Then, in a medium sized bowl (or your sink with the stopper in), mix hot water with a splash of vinegar (AT recommends two tablespoons of vinegar to a quart of water). Wipe this mixture over the parts of the mirror you want defogged, and let dry. You're done!

The de-fogging effect isn't permanent. It lasts about two weeks in my house, so I've added it to my regular cleaning regimen to help keep everything clear.

Read more tips from "Make life easier" March (and please share your own tips in the comments, too!)

- Speed wallpaper removal

- Remove stickers and price tags

Tip: Removing stickers and price tags

There's nothing worse than bringing home a pretty new picture frame, tray or vase only to spend the next hour slowly pulling, peeling and begging the manufacturer's stickers or price tags to come free without leaving a sticky mess.

I'm not sure where I first found this idea - much thanks to whatever blog or friend shared it - but giving tags a blast with a hair dryer makes a huge difference!

The heat from the hair dryer melts away the glue, allowing the tag to come off cleanly.

And, if you do end up with some residue (or have a few sticky pieces from before you learned this trick) products like Goo Gone are a real lifesaver, though I've also had some luck with an elbow grease and olive oil combo. 

Read more tips from "Make life easier" March (and please share your own tips in the comments, too!)

- Speed wallpaper removal

Tip: Speed wallpaper removal

After my stint working on thestar.com's Olympic coverage, it's nice to be back at work on Yourhome!

All those late nights watching sports, and pretending I know something about curling, have left me with a pretty long to-do list around my house for the month of March - everything from cleaning and grocery shopping to painting and installing new shelves. 

With this in mind, I've decided to make March about sharing some of the best time-saving tips I've gathered during my time as an editor - and hopefully learning a few new ones along the way - in an effort I'm calling "Make life easier March."

Today, we're talking wallpaper removal. Whether it's the previous owners' floral borders or a tired accent wall, most homeowners are going to end up stripping wallpaper at some point in their DIY careers.

And, while there are loads of products on the market that claim to make removing paper easier, the best find so far: fabric softener.

Yep, the same stuff you use on your laundry. Dilute it with a little water, douse your walls and the stuff will (hopefully) peel right off. And don't worry about springing for the good stuff - it doesn't seem to make a difference.

(Read more about one DIY'ers wallpaper removing experience here.)

Making over the bathroom (finally)

My bathroom has been bugging me for a while. The baby blue is just so not my style, and the misaligned, peeling flooring leaves a lot to be desired. Plus it's very, very small. But, overall, it was functional, so I tried to ignore it for as long as possible.

The nail in the coffin came during our knob and tube rewiring, when we had to patch the wall. I figured if I was going to need to re-paint anyway, it might as well be a shade I liked. 

And so, last weekend, with only a day left for those Home Renovation Tax Credit purchases, I picked up some paint - with the delightful name of "Anonymous" - and new flooring.

After an hour of scrubbing, pulling down the icky medicine cabinet over the toilet, taping and other painting prep, I was totally ready for the first (and mercifully, what turned out to be the only!) coat of my paint and primer combo.

Then, it was time for a fresh coat of white for the wainscotting and trim - I had no idea how discoloured it was until I started with the paint brush!

Finally, for less than $100 in paint and about nine hours of painting, I had a fresh, clean looking bathroom!

Still to come is my new flooring, installing a towel bar and some shelving to replace the old medicine cabinet and finding a new, snazzier light fixture for above the sink, as well as a new shower curtain.

But, even with at least another weekend's worth of work to do, I'm thrilled with the results. It feels more sophisticated, more complete (painting the radiator to match the wainscotting made a big difference) and more like my own space!

Adding a home office to my guest room

After whipping our spare room into guest-ready shape with only a few days to spare before the holidays, it became time to turn it into a space that I could use the rest of the year: my home office.

Here's a reminder of what it looked like during my pre-holiday decorating dash (previously, it was full of boxes):

And, just in time for my parent's arrival, we finished the painting and purchased a cheap, but surprisingly comfortable, futon, leaving us with this:

I'm afraid it's a really tough room to photograph (it's teeny-tiny - it would make a marvellous walk-in closet), but you can get the idea of the soft silvery purple paired with a punchy grape.

Then, it was time to make it a comfortable, and functional, home office without making it too "office-y."

I didn't want my guests to feel like they were sleeping in a cold, corporate setting - but, I still wanted to be able to focus on my work on the many days I'm spending in there.

So, in lieu of a desk, I opted for an antique table, and the filing cabinet has been swapped out for a night table, which can be pulled over beside the bed when we've got guests.

Obviously, it's still a work in progress.

The hunt is on for a comfier chair and some art to dress up the walls. Floating shelves will also be installed for some extra, open storage - leaving the closet free for suitcases and visitor's clothes. Add in some more task lighting, and I may just be ready to call the project done.

But, for now, I'm just pleased it's gone from a mess of storage to a usable workspace!